Paul Ryan debuted a new stump-speech attack on President Obama's "redistribution" comment Wednesday in Danville, Va., as the Republican ticket looks to go on offense after the early part of the week was dominated by coverage of running mate Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comments at a fundraiser earlier this year.
"President Obama said that he believes in redistribution," Ryan told the crowd, gathered outside a tire manufacturing company just across the North Carolina border. "Mitt Romney and I are not running to redistribute the wealth, Mitt Romney and I are running to help Americans create wealth."
Ryan's comments referenced an audio recording that surfaced Tuesday of Obama at an academic conference in 1998 saying he "believe[s] in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody has a shot."
Looking to change the narrative from the secretly recorded comments Romney himself admitted were "not elegantly stated" at a Florida fundraiser, Republicans have begun hammering the president over the remark. Ryan picked up the baton Wednesday in Virginia, pledging a Romney administration would advocate free market principles.
"Efforts that promote hard work and personal responsibility over government dependency are what has made this economy the envy of the world," Ryan said.
The vice presidential candidate seemed to acknowledge the whirlwind pace of the week early in his remarks, telling the crowd, "What a day. What a week!"
And, in what may have been a tacit acknowledgment of the potential damage of his running mate's remarks, the Wisconsin lawmaker emphasized how Romney served as a Republican governor of heavily-Democratic Massachusetts, listing instances where he worked with members of the opposition party.
"He didn't demean, he didn't demagogue, he reached across the aisle," Ryan said.
Ryan continued his standard stump speech practice of highlighting a rolling national debt clock and hammering the president's economic record.
"I gotta tell you, if you want to make tire molds, if you want more jobs, you've got to have more economic opportunity," Ryan said.
On Tuesday, the Obama campaign swiped back at efforts by the Romney campaign to highlight the "redistribution" comment.
“The Romney campaign is so desperate to change the subject that they’ve gone back to the failed playbook co-authored by Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said. "Fourteen years ago, then-Senator Obama was making an argument for a more efficient, more effective government – specifically citing city government agencies that he didn’t think were working effectively. He believed then, and believes now, that there are steps we can take to promote opportunity and ensure that all Americans have a fair shot if they work hard. Unlike Governor Romney, he doesn’t believe that if you’re a student who applies for a loan you’re looking for a handout.”
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